Topic 4 students' lect notes-18th century america-brookdale-4

American Civilization ITopic 4

Experience of Empire: Eighteenth-Century America

Growth and Diversity

• 1700–1750—colonial population rose from 250,000 to over two million

• Much growth through natural increase

• Large influx of non-English Europeans

– Largest group of newcomers were the Scots-Irish

• Many carved out farms on Pennsylvania’s western frontier

Know for Test 2 that the growth of the total white population of Britain’s thirteen mainland colonies in America expanded rapidly between 1700 and 1750 (annual growth rate of 3%)

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Distribution of European and African Immigrants in the Thirteen Colonies


Scots-Irish Flee English Oppression

• Largest non-English group

• The Scots fled England for Ireland, then the Scots-Irish came to North America

• Concentrated on the Pennsylvania frontier

• Quick to challenge authority


Germans Search for a Better Life

• First waves similar to Quakers and sought religious toleration

• Later waves sought to improve their material condition

• Admired as peaceful, hard-working farmers


Germans Search for a Better Life

• Tried to preserve German language and customs

• Aroused the prejudice of English neighbors

• Scots-Irish and Germans spread into Shenandoah Valley

. For Test 1 know one of the two major groups of non-English European colonists that came to America before the American Revolution i.e. either the Scots-Irish or the Germans


Convict Settlers

• Transportation Act of 1718 allowed judges to send convicted felons to American colonies *

• 50,000 convicts to America, 1718–1775– Some felons were dangerous criminals– Most had committed minor crimes against property

– Life difficult for transported convicts

• British praised system; colonists deplored it

• Know for Test 2 that the courts of Great Britain sent large numbers of convicts to America during the 18th century before the American Revolution


Spanish Borderlands of the Eighteenth Century

• Spain occupied a large part of America north of Mexico since sixteenth century

• Ranged from Florida Peninsula to California

• Multicultural, interdependent society of Spaniards and Native Americans

• Know for Test 2 that the Spanish empire in North

America was very large and widely dispersed


Conquering the Northern Frontier

• Spanish presence established in late 1500s

• Spanish reestablished control in 1692

• St. Augustine, a Spanish military outpost established by Spain over concern for French encroachment

– Became first permanent settlement established in what is now the United States

• 1769—belated Spanish mission settlements in California to prevent Russian claims

• a major reason for Spain to establish missions in California was to prevent encroachment from Russia


Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands

• Slow growth of Spanish population in borderlands– Mainly males (mostly soldiers), priests, and administrators *– Danger of Indian attacks as well as harsh physical environment

discouraged ordinary colonists

• Spanish influence over Native Americans

– Spanish exploited native labor– Natives such as the Pueblo from the southwest resisted

conversion to Catholicism• Spanish influenced region’s architecture and language• Know for Test 2 that in contrast to the English frontier settlement of

the 18th century, the Spanish outposts in North America grew very slowly


The Spanish Borderlands, ca. 1770


The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture

• Rapid change in eighteenth-century colonies

• Growth of urban cosmopolitan culture

• Aggressive participation in consumption


Provincial Cities

• Only about 5% of population

• Five largest cities: Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, and Charles Town *

• Economies were geared to commerce, not manufacturing

• Inhabitants emulated English culture, fashion, and architecture

• Cities were becoming more elegant

• Know 3 of the five largest cities in America during the 18th century.

• Know that American cities in the colonies during the 18th century made up only a very small percentage of the population


Economic Transformation

• Long-term period of economic and population growth

• England added to existing base of mercantilist rules from 1710s–1750s

– Colonial manufacture or trade of timber, sugar, hats, and iron restricted

– Regulations not enforced

• Trade was mainly with England and West Indies; little with Africa

• By 1750,more than ½ of American goods produced for export went to Great Britain. The second largest market for America goods produced for export went to the West Indies. (27% of all American exports in 1768). Major export crops included tobacco, wheat, and rice


Birth of a Consumer Society

• English mass-production of consumer goods stimulated rise in colonial imports

• Americans built up large debts to English merchants to finance increased imports

• Trade between colonies increased

– Intercoastal trade

– Great Wagon Road in the backcountry

– During second half of the 1700s, there was a substantial increase in trade among the colonies e.g., Southern colonies sending tobacco and rice to Middle Colonies and New England in exchange for meat and wheat.


Birth of a Consumer Society

• Eroded regional and local identities

• Allowed Americans a chance to learn about one another

• Expanding trade among the colonies led to colonists of different backgrounds having more contact with one another and to eroding regional identities


The Great Wagon Road


Religious Revivals inProvincial Societies

• The Great Awakening – Spontaneous, evangelical revivals– People began to rethink basic assumptions

about church and state, institutions and society


The Great Awakening

• Movement occurred among many denominations in different places at different times– New England in the 1730s; Virginia in the

1750s and 1760s


The Great Awakening

• Jonathan Edwards sparked the movement

– Reminded people of omnipotent God and predestination

– Reaction to ministers going “soft” on population

– Know for Test 2 that the preacher Jonathan Edwards is most associated with the Great Awakening and his preaching contributed heavily to this movement. Know that his preaching centered on predestination and eternal damnation. This type of preaching by Edwards and others was called “evangelical preaching”


The Voice of Evangelical Religion

• George Whitefield a dynamic personality and speaker who sustained the revivals

– Preached outdoor sermons to thousands of people in nearly every colony

– Skilled entrepreneur and promoter• Itinerant ministers followed Whitefield’s example

– Split established churches into “new lights” and “old lights”

• The men and women who came to hear these evangelicals give sermons during the Great Awakening were called “New Lights”


The Voice of Evangelical Religion

• Gave voice to those traditionally silenced– Richard Allen and the African Methodist

Episcopal Church

• The Awakening promoted a democratic, evangelical union of national scope

• Revivalists held optimistic attitudes toward America’s religious role in world history

• Fostered sense of American unity© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Clash of Political Cultures

• Colonists attempted to emulate British political institutions

• Effort led to discovery of how different they were from English people


The English Constitution

• The British Constitution universally admired

– Not a written document, but a system of government based on statute, court decision, and common law

• Believed to balance monarchy (king), aristocracy (House of Lords), and the people (House of Commons)

• Balance believed to guarantee liberties

• Since the end of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, the Parliament of England/Great Britain was growing in power while the power of the monarch was becoming weaker


The Reality of British Politics

• Less than 20% of English males could vote

• “Rotten” boroughs

• Corrupt members of Parliament

• “Commonwealthmen” spoke against corruption, urged return to truly balanced constitution

• Know that in the early 1700s, less than 20% of English males could vote because of property restrictions. Know that in Great Britain in the 1700s there were some boroughs that had almost no people living in them and these boroughs were referred to as ”Rotten boroughs”

• © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Governing the Colonies: The American Experience

• Colonists attempted to model England’s balanced constitution

• Royal governors: mid-level, ambitious bureaucrats

• More powers than king in England

– Veto legislation

– Dismiss judges

– Command provincial military

– initially the American colonies looked at Great Britain as a model of balanced constitution.

– Know that in reality royal governors in the colonies often had more power than the king of England within their own colony


Governing the Colonies: The American Experience

• Governors’ councils steadily lost influence

• “Middle-class democracies”

• Higher percentage of the population had suffrage than in Britain, but most did not vote

– Women and non-whites excluded

• Potential to expel officials always part of political system; checked abuse of power

• in most colonies, adult white males who owned a small amount of property could vote in countywide elections and therefore there was a much higher percentage of the population that could vote in the colonies than could vote in Great Britain.

• Know that women and non-whites could not vote in the colonies.


Colonial Assemblies

• Felt obligation to preserve colonial liberties

• Assemblies controlled colony’s finances

• No incentive for assembly to cooperate with governors

• Governors relied on local elites


Colonial Assemblies

• Exercised extreme vigilance against the spread of privileged power

• Similar system of assemblies facing similar problems laid foundation for a larger cultural identity


Century of Imperial War

• Britain’s conflicts with continental rivals like France spilled over to colonies

• Security threats from these conflicts forced colonists into more military and political cooperation

• British colonies overwhelmingly militarily superior to New France, but ineffective


North America, 1750


King William’s and Queen Anne’s Wars

• Wars fought for control of the Mississippi River Valley

• France extended its presence from Canada into Louisiana

• British saw French expansion as encirclement



• King William’s War (1689–1697) – French frontier raids on New York and New

England

• Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713)

– Bloody fighting across entire frontier

• European diplomats more concerned with balance of power in Europe than military situation in North America

• (During the 1700s in Europe there existed a balance of power and therefore no country had hegemony)



• Native Americans tried to hold middle ground– Iroquois favored British– Algonquians favored French


King George’s War and Its Aftermath

• Fought 1743–1748

• 1745—New England troops captured Fort Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island

• 1748—Louisbourg returned to France by Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle

• French built Fort Duquesne to keep British from seizing Ohio River Valley

• This war in Europe is called the War of the Austrian Succession and is one of the two major wars fought among European powers during the 18th century


King George’s War and Its Aftermath

• Virginians under George Washington failed to expel French– Showed one colony alone could not defeat

French


Albany Congress and Braddock’s Defeat: Albany Plan

• Albany Congress, 1754

• Benjamin Franklin’s idea of central colonial government – Elected representatives decide on matters of

defense, western expansion, and relations with Native Americans

– Could levy taxes to support its operations


Braddock’s Defeat

• 1755—General Edward Braddock led force to drive French from Ohio Valley

• Braddock’s army ambushed, destroyed

• French still in control of Ohio River Valley

• George Washington obtains his first military experience in this pre-French and Indian War campaign


Seven Years’ War

• 1756—England declared war on France

• Prime Minister William Pitt shifted strategy to focus on North America

• By 1758, French cut off from resupply

• Fort Duquesne abandoned, Quebec captured, last French forces surrendered, 1760

• (Know for the test that the Seven Years’ War was the second and larger of the two major wars of the 1700s fought by Europeans)


Seven Years’ War

• Peace of Paris 1763: France lost

– British got all of North America east of the Mississippi– (Know that the country that lost the most at the end of

the Seven Years’ war was France including losing all of Canada and all of her territories east of the Mississippi River)

– Spanish added Louisiana to their empire– (Know that the biggest winner at the end of the Seven

Years’ War was Great Britain)


The Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763


Perceptions of War

• Expanded horizons of colonists

• Created trained officer corps that knew British vulnerabilities

• British felt colonists ungrateful and not willing to bear their fair share of burden

• Colonists saw themselves as “junior partners” to British


North America After 1763


Rule Britannia?

• Most Americans bound to England in 1763

• Ties included: – British culture– British consumer goods– British evangelists – British military victories


Date post:	15-Jul-2015
Category:	Education
Upload:	megan71689
View:	62 times
Download:	0 times